


Never Wake A Sleeping Starscream

by Spoon888



Series: Twitter Warm Up Prompt Fills [16]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Seekers Are Like Cats, Sleep Deprivation, Starscream being Starscream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:40:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27458137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spoon888/pseuds/Spoon888
Summary: In which the unstoppable force becomes the immovable object.
Series: Twitter Warm Up Prompt Fills [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1719604
Comments: 38
Kudos: 246





	Never Wake A Sleeping Starscream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [neveralarch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/neveralarch/gifts).



Starscream was recharging, slumped across the main security console in the Command Centre. The console Soundwave currently needed to get to. 

A red button was blinking insistently under Starscream's right wing, beyond Soundwave's reach.

It was a security beacon. They could be under attack. He was unable to launch counter measures because the controls for that also happened to be trapped under the snoozing seeker.

Soundwave flexed his fingers restlessly as he assessed his limited options. 

There wasn't a single doubt in Soundwave's mind that Starscream had chosen this spot on purpose, and almost solely to spite him for his lack of support on the altered raid schedule last week. Because Starscream never slept in a berth, only carefully chosen spots of great inconvenience. Across the throne, for example, or sprawled out on top of time-sensitive intelligence reports. 

The problem stemmed from Starscream having never set his chrono to run by Earth's insipidly predictable twenty-four hour day-cycles after their arrival, and as a result, he tended to lose track of time. Easily distracted by his plots and experiments, he would keep himself awake for increasingly lengthy stretches. Until there were days, sometimes weeks, where he would trudge about the base in a comatose-like state, ambling about like the undead with his pale, squinting optics, subjecting everyone he came into contact with to his unhinged sleep-deprived ramblings. He was a paranoid, delirious, twitching menace. 

More so than usual, that is. 

Megatron had initially assigned a rather apathetic Scrapper the task of 'dealing with it' - _it_ being the issue of a Second In Command who was so emotionally strung out that he broke down into tantrums over the tiniest of inconveniences and drank more high-grade engex than a Titan in order to keep himself alert. 

But after one attempt at pumping the poor seeker full of enough tranquillisers to down a Dinobot, only for Starscream to spring back up after less than a minute of going under and trying to claw the entire team of Constructicons optics out, Scrapper had called it a lost cause and given up. And so the problem had been left unsolved. 

So, on the occasions when Starscream did finally slow down long enough to let himself slip away into blissful unconsciousness, Megatron made it abundantly clear that any idiot foolish enough to wake the slumbering seeker would be shot directly in the face. He was not to be disturbed, regardless of where he succumbed to sleep. 

Soundwave was under no delusion that Megatron's threat wouldn't also apply to him. 

Starscream stirred as Soundwave mused, sliding further out of his seat to drape himself more securely over the console controls. His head was pillowed on his folded arm, which must have been pressing down on several of the glyph keys as it was making the monitor screen above him flicker as random windows popped open and closed again in rapid succession. 

The red button was still blinking. 

If it was an emergency, surely he would be forgiven. Megatron was no fool, he had to be aware of Starscream's games by now. If the seeker was going to fall asleep in such an inconvenient place he couldn't expect to be left undisturbed for however many hours he would be napping for. 

And Soundwave of course had to take the consequences of choosing to act, or not to act, into account as well. Was the fallout from waking Starscream _really_ going to outweigh that of an attack? 

...He honestly couldn't be sure. Both could very well result in loss of life.

But it was a risk he might have to take. 

He reached for the seeker, intending to nudge him gently back into consciousness and shift him aside to get to the controls -when he sensed a dark, foreboding presence focus in on him from behind. 

Hand outstretched and hovering above the seeker, Soundwave turned slowly at the neck. And found Megatron stood in the Command Centre's wide open doorway. Watching him. Arms folded sternly across his chest. 

Soundwave stared. 

Megatron began to shake his helm from side to side in slow warning. The message was clear. _No_. 

Soundwave pointed to the red blinking light, desperate for his leader to see reason. 

Megatron's stony expression didn't change. 

Soundwave let his hand fall back to his side with a sigh, defeated. Megatron tipped his head to the side, towards the door, wordlessly gesturing for Soundwave to get lost, clearly no longer feeling he could trust him around napping Air Commanders. 

Soundwave did as ordered, glancing sullenly back at Starscream on his way out. The seeker hummed quietly in his sleep, a wing flicking back as he dreamed. Another button was accidentally pressed by his cheek as he shifted, and the monitor screen lit up with a great big flashing red message. **Torpedoes Armed.**

Soundwave quickened his pace, happy to let Megatron figure out how to deal with _that_ without waking the seeker on his own. 


End file.
